Our young learners at Margaret Hendry OSHC celebrated the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day a few days late so that they could welcome two special guests: Zuzette Fahey, Indigenous Education Officer from ACT Education, and Monica Harland, Indigenous Education Officer at Amaroo School.
The children helped prepare decorations, as well as help create a gift for their guests. Led by our educator Teya, the pre-schoolers made a beautiful piece of art.
To celebrate the day, several activities were planned: nail art, making Australian animal face masks, a game of Juluhya (an Aboriginal game that originated in the Numinbah Valley area of south Queensland), and ochre painting.
Teya scaffolded the children in making some fantastic animal masks, based on quokkas, koalas, parrots, and Australian butterflies. And Jarrod ran Juluhya, an Aboriginal game, which Henry declared to be the most fun game ever.
Zuzette and Monica showed the children how to grind ochre and mix it with water to make paint, and Oge asked some great questions, such as where can you find the special ochre rocks. We might have some future geologists in the group!
Zuzette guided the children to try grinding the ochre themselves, and carefully collect it. The children had the choice of face painting with Zuzette and making a painting on paper with Monica. They loved experiencing the texture of the ochre paint, and some of them had a try at painting their own faces. Barsam asked for a dinosaur outline and painted it with two colors of ochre.
We are so grateful to have Zuzette and Monica share their cultures with us.
To learn more about Margaret Hendry OSHC, visit https://bit.ly/3PZsNTk.
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